Posts Tagged ‘French in London’

A highly respected commentator and former BBC World Service editor warned a group of us that French people may not be as innocent of terrorist ambitions as appears. He said a French passport could hide a Moroccan activist.

His view was that there are too many French in the south east of England. He warned also that 34 million Turks could get into the south east and at least the same number from Bulgarian. As a consequence he predicted that within a decade the south east would be ruled by Islamic law.

Needless to say that this respected BBC commentator (BBC inasmuch that he regularly appears on BBC news programmes) lives in the south east of England. He has lived in England for half a century since he arrived from the Middle East. He is a quietly spoken man, a shrewd commentator. He is uncompromising in his opinion and considers his view a warning that sadly will come true. Indeed, he thinks it may be too late to do anything.

What he says perhaps splits the Brexit view neatly for reality. The immigration debate was not about white Europeans coming to England. It was about something far more sinister. The English in particular in the south east are against not, in this case the French, but Muslims. Simple as that. Islam is seen as threatening.

But recently, the verbal attacks on French, German and even Italian (everyone surely love Italians) in London and Bristol have increased. A French academy school gates scene in SW London recently was assaulted with drive-by shouts of Go Home We’re Not Europeans Now.

Staff in a London restaurant say that late home going is dangerous – at least unsettling.

But why should we be surprised? This referendum on Europe like no other national event questioning Britain’s place in continental Europe has shown a not very agreeable fact: the English (forget the others) are not very nice people. They are small minded. They do not like foreigners – including and increasingly, Scots.

It will all die down as the political and financial situation moves on we are told. Will it? No it will not. The BBC commentator was adamant. The south east of England is under threat. There will be rape, pillage and worse of literary images and proportions.

Would you send home the French – 2 million in England he said. No, he would not. But he said the authorities should start weeding them out. Perhaps we could devise yellow arm bands to tell those lovely middle class southern English which people were not English enough to sleep peacefully in their beds.